Rain swept sideways across the shrine, thin and sharp, hissing where it struck the warm stone. Somewhere beyond the rocks the sea heaved and groaned, and another streak of lightning tore open the sky, bleaching the world pale before thunder screamed across the horizon again. Noah did not move while she spoke. He watched her fold into herself, arms tightening around her ribs like someone bracing against a cold only she could feel. The sight pulled at something stubborn and protective in his chest. He wanted to reach across the distance and hold her.
“It means something.” He said quietly. His glacier gaze drifted briefly to the shrine and the fruit he had laid there, rain beading on their skins while Frey’s altar thrummed with life and rot alike. “Giving you his heart like that was not a small thing.” He looked back to her, steady and searching rather than judging. “But something meaning a lot doesn’t always mean it’s enough.” His voice stayed gentle, the words chosen with care as though he were stepping across thin ice with a surging, raging arctic sea below. A slow breath left him and put his eyes to hers, unwavering.
“You asked what I think waits for your heart if you start seeing this differently,” he continued, “truth is, I don’t know.” Lightning flashed again across the distant sea and for a moment the shrine glowed in stark white relief. “But I do remember something you once told me. You said Sunjata wasn’t the man you considered to be your true love of your life. You said you believed people could love, lose, and love again.” The rain softened to a whisper between them as he held her gaze. “I believed you when you said that.”
He stepped a little closer, not trying to crowd her, but near enough that his presence was solid in the storm. The attuned bond carried the quiet sincerity behind his words. Being afraid of ending up alone isn’t the same thing as loving someone, Ru, and cutting off pieces of yourself to keep someone from leaving, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll stay. His jaw flexed faintly, the concern on his face unguarded. You deserve someone who chooses you without needing you to bleed for it. Even if that someone isn’t Sunjata. While Noah believed, too, that love required sacrifice, that was sacrifice on both ends that made both parties better — not less.
